As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. (RNS) On Easter Sunday, the worship band at Bethel Community Church in Redding, California, opened the service with "This Is Amazing Grace," a 2012 hit that has remained one of the most popular worship songs of the past decade. John MacArthur, brought up the settlement from the pulpit on Sunday, noting that all the money from the county went to attorneys fees. Statutes, the county argued, give local health authorities to act, in part with authority granted by the countys Board of Supervisors. MacArthur on Sunday said the settlement money would go to the Thomas More Society, which represented the church in this court case. With a gracechurch.org account you can bookmark favorite sermons, register your Sunday attendance, and submit prayer requests. She also uses Phil Johnsons Twitter post, who is the executive director ofGrace to Youand an Elder at GCC, saying he had the virus in December 2020. Childrens Ministry has been actively planning for Vacation Bible School, and we invite you to join us! This year we are studying the Gospel of John, one of the most cherished books in all Scripture. After that, Cho said, he was told by elder board chair Chris Hamilton that he would need to walk back his findings about the churchs mistakes if he wanted to remain an elder. How strong a politician is Gavin Newsom, really? Age discrimination, How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Rainn Wilson, Schiff reports major cash advantage over Porter and Lee in Senate race, The Ultimate L.A. Bookshelf: 110 essential Los Angeles books, This exclusive island town might be Californias biggest violator of affordable housing law, Despite storms, many Californians are still coping with dry wells and awaiting fixes, Column: Lefties never liked Dianne Feinstein. Grace Community Church 13248 Roscoe Blvd. Some did and dismissed its findings anyway. They had also been doubted, dismissed, and implicitly or explicitly threatened with discipline while seeking refuge from their abusive marriages. Our organist, Stephen Sturz, has been ministering to our congregation for 45 years. (Hamilton did not respond to requests for comment.) Cho said MacArthur had been warned about the concerns but has defended Shannon and kept him in the same position. Its hard for a pastor to conceive of a dynamic where a woman is receiving mistreatment, where at some point along the road, she is not expressly responsible for it, Holmes said. These . The tone of the courts opinion in the Chula Vista case was very government-friendly, while the Tandon ruling was very government-hostile, McDonald said. Ryan Carter is an editor for the Southern California News Group, who also writes stories for the group. In the end, she said, the betrayal of her churchnow her former churchhurt the most. County attorneys were not available for comment. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Under the agreement, which the board unanimously approved without discussion, the state of California will also pay the church $400,000. Patricia and I enjoyed our own bout with COVID for about a week and a half, said MacArthur, who was absent from the pulpit late December. She said she had reported to church leaders evidence of her husbands infidelity, searches for incest porn, and inappropriate behavior with their daughter starting when she was just a couple years old. He tried to convince the churchs leaders to reconsider and at least privately make it right. Whenever he met with or saw elders in person, the case came up in discussion. We need that. One couple said they observed a counseling session where Shannon failed to advise a member of their family to report a man who had confessed to an incident of child molestation; he also did not direct her to leave him, since he hadnt been convicted. Account FAQ; Welcome to Grace. Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month. Its a reflection of how the pastor has been groomed, Singer said. He also said that she twisted the words of one of GCCs leaders for a large adult Sunday school class to create a false impression.. She said when she read about Eileen Gray last year, she thought, This sounds a lot like what Ive been told. The CDC study found unvaccinated individuals were more than twice as likely to be reinfected with COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated after initially contracting the virus., Subscribe to CT Klassens declaration said the photos did not contain nudity. ]. Two other leaders at Grace said they would testify on the wifes behalf, but the couple reached an agreement in January prior to their court date, so none of the pastors ended up needing to testify. Then, on Feb. 5, the high court struck down the indoor worship ban while allowing caps on attendance and a ban on singing, according to the churchs attorneys. Current and former elders had also raised concerns about Shannons incompetent counsel. He said pastor John MacArthur told him to forget it. When Cho continued to call the elders to do justice on the womans behalf, he said he was asked to walk back his conclusions or resign. Church officials refused to enforce mask-wearing and social-distancing requirements for its large congregation members of which were generally supportive of the churchs pushback. Cho and his wife resigned their membership the next day. He wanted to see them correct the mistakes of their past and do better in the future. Sun Valley, CA 91352, MF 8:00 am5:00 pm We need to worship. Andrew Cuomos restrictions on churches and won, the church attorneys argue in their court papers. Ellis at the time was also senior legal advisor for President Donald Trumps re-election campaign. McCarthy used his speech in NYC to slam President Joe Biden for doing "nothing" to address the nation's financial crisis. Southern Baptist leader Brent Leatherwood calls on the state to restrain evil through Governor Lees plan to keep weapons from those deemed a threat to themselves or others. Los Angeles County had sued the church and its pastor, John MacArthur, last August after officials said he had he opened the church and held a large indoor worship service with unmasked attendees, in violation of state and county rules. Here are 22 essential L.A. spots for every tourist, Column: We cant afford another writers strike. The preliminary injunction was issued last Sept. 10 by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff as a way of stemming the spread of the coronavirus, based in part on evidence presented by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health that Grace Community Church was holding indoor Sunday services, prompting the county to sue the church on Aug. 14. Fellowship groups are open to adults and families in every season of life. John 19:1642 | The Crucifixion of Jesus. According to her own filing, the photos include pictures of her toddler touching her husbands pants zipper and her face being sprayed with water as well as selfies with the child while she was naked. Wednesday, April 19, 2023 Two California churches were so eager to meet last weekend that when their services began, worshipers erupted in applause. The countys $400,000 payment will come out of the public health budget, and it is on top of more than $950,000 in legal fees the county had already spent on the matter. Our philosophy is that if theres been abuse, you dont put them into a room and expect them both to go through the process of getting the log out of their eyes, said Ken Sande, a Christian mediator who spoke of patterns hes seen over decades of conciliation ministry, not about GCC in particular. Copyright 2023 Grace Community Church. In Eileen Grays case, overseen by then-associate executive pastor Carey Hardy and involving GCCs longtime pastor of counseling Bill Shannon, he found evidence of mistreatment, bias, and errors in how they handled the case. M-F 8:00 am-5:00 pm 818-909-5500 . Andersens declaration recounts the husband saying during counseling that he and his daughter had touched tongues while they kissed to imitate a scene in a cartoon. Of the $8,000 in fines the county has levied for violating the public health orders, Grace Community Church has paid $6,500. (Update: Following publication, Grace Community Church released a statement saying that the elders do not comment on counseling and discipline disputes, but that the church deals with accusations personally and privately. They defended their counsel as biblical, saying, Our churchs history and congregation are the testimony.). Now, Mayor Karen Bass wants to rebuild the force, settlement that will pay the church $400,000, rejected a Chula Vista churchs challenge, Do coronavirus social distancing orders violate religious freedom? They made me look differently at men. He then quibbled with media reports that the church had experienced multiple COVID-19 outbreaks. In February, after Barrett joined, the court lifted Californias ban on indoor religious services, while allowing capacity restrictions as well as restrictions on singing and chanting. Would my sharing sooner have brought about change at Grace Community Church or other churches who follow their leadership model? Grace Community Church reversed course after Los Angeles County health officials warned that indoor conferences were prohibited and that the event could worsen the spread of the coronavirus. Sunday after Sunday, people packed Grace Community Church and belted out hymns, openly violating Los Angeles Countys prohibitions against indoor services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Four months earlier, the court had rejected a Chula Vista churchs challenge to Californias indoor worship restrictions. (Irfan Khan . 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County square off in court over indoor ban, LA County takes step toward potential indoor vaccine requirement, Rui Hachimuras aggressive shooting pays dividends for Lakers, UCLA footballs first-team offense begins to take shape, Beneath DTLA, ghost trains take final testing of LA Metro Regional Connector, They spent their lives teaching. Gray had refused to follow leaders counsel to lift a restraining order against her abusive husband, David Gray. He repeated pleas to take seriously the concerns about Shannon and the churchs counseling. Grace Today . Your daily news briefing from the editors of CT. Bhutanese Nepali Refugees Turn Their Trials into Zeal for Evangelism, ERLC President, Covenant Parent Urges Tennessee to Pass Proposed Gun Reform. The cases at Grace Community Church land in a larger debate around what qualifies as abuse and whether Christians should prioritize reconciliation in abuse cases, with the church and its seminary holding a prominent place among conservative biblical counselors and the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC). Theres a fundamentally different understanding of what abuse is, said Jonathan Holmes, a graduate of The Masters University and a pastor and counselor in Ohio, noting that the labeland the most serious responsesoften get reserved for physical and sexual violations. Now, they say theyre spending their retirement paying for it. Thousands of maskless congregants gather weekly at Grace Community Church as Pastor John MacArthur ignores orders from a judge and public health officials. Account. Grace Community Church, which defied Los Angeles County orders to stop indoor services in the pandemic, may get $400,000 if a settlement is approved. 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